Wednesday, May 26, 2010

The first band were locals BaioWolf. I'm not really even sure how to describe it. It was 2 guys with mics, all their music was prerecorded. They performed in the audience and wore only their underwear. I assumed it was gonna be stupid pop music, but after some electro intro, they kept screaming and jumping into all the hipsters and it was one of the best things ever. I kept laughing through their entire set; all 10 minutes of it. A guy in a giant platypus costume came out and danced too. Simultaneously the worst and best thing I've ever seen. There's no way I could ever review them.

Math the Band:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F252BaenmYE

Yeah.

It was my 4th time seeing mc chris and it's time for him to dive back into his back catalogue. His newer stuff is just fine, but it makes for better dancing than actual rapping. But when he did hit those old ones, it was awesome. He had a t-shirt contest in the crowd and some 10 year old kid won with his Flash (superhero) shirt. That was fun. He also threw out some girl for being drunk and creepy and a pedophile. Good times. The crowd was great and I could tell mc chris was having a good time. He just needs to learn to not be afraid of his older stuff!

Sunday, May 23, 2010

Apparently, there's a new (or new to me) venue and production company that's booking tons of local metal shows in Olathe, including a metalfest!

The place is called Mulligan's Bar & Grill at 911 S. Parker St. They have lots of shows coming up, including performances from Vanlade, The Tards, Torn The Fuck Apart, Meat Shank, and a 2-day metalfest with performances from Christ Hate and Unmerciful, with more TBA!

Saturday, May 22, 2010

The last time I saw Job For A Cowboy for their opening acts, it was one of the worst concert experiences I've ever had. Luckily, this time was much better all around.

The Bottleneck in Lawrence is one of the worst venues in the summer. It was like an oven in there, and the cooling air produced by the loud amps gave the most relief of the night. It helped at times.

The first band of the night was Independance, MO's own The Roman Holiday. If they were trying to be a carbon copy of Job For A Cowboy throughout the years, they certainly have done a good job. Honestly, their newer stuff sounded just like a more generic version of JFAC's newer stuff, and their "older stuff" sounded just like "Doom"-era JFAC, breakdowns and all. They never had any solo's, the vocalist could only scream in one way, and every song sounded the same. The drummer had some chops, though. I digress, I can think of a couple bands I'd rather see open up this concert, but I can think of a ton more I wouldn't want to see.

The kings of scene kid-destroying metal Revocation were next and they melted faces with every song. I saw them open for Quo Vadis in Baltimore last year and I'm disappointed it took me this long to see them again, but it made it that much better. It took about halfway through their set for the crowd to get really into it, but with enough insane solos and catchy rhythms, the crowd was really responsive the entire set. Complete with band crowd-surfing and dual solo's, Revocation will always put on one of the best and most energetic set's you'll ever see.

Cattle Decapitation should be a legendary metal band after last year. Releasing one of the freshest, most progressive death metal albums in recent years, their live show only improves upon itself with each viewing. The Harvest Floor tracks sound amazing live and with just one guitar there makes for some amazing moments that are almost like freeform jazz in some sense. They've started to include the genre of noise music into their shows now and, to me, that's a huge plus. Travis is still one of the best extreme metal vocalists around (even though before the show he looked like a chubby Michael Scott) and their new bass player is from Unmerciful from Wichita! YEAH! Still amazing, best set I've seen them put on.

I went back to the merch stands for Whitechapel and I'll keep it brief: they are the first band I've ever seen without any redeemable musical qualities live. The sound was really quiet too because I was in the back, but I like to think it was because Cattle Decapitation melted the soundboard. Three guitarists all playing breakdowns, breakdowns make up a majority of the song, boring, etc. Terrible. One of the worst bands of all time and the worst live performance I've ever been a part of.

David of Revocation talked with me for a while. I got a ReaniManiac shirt and for $5 more when you buy a shirt, I got a CD (Empire Of The Obscene) which he signed for me. Great guys.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

I have a DVD of Andrew W.K. and it shows a clip of him performing somewhere on Sept. 11, 2002 and he says something about how we shouldn't remember the fallen with a moment of silence, but a moment of the loudest, most raucous noise we can muster up to celebrate their lives and accomplishments. For about 5 hours tonight in a college town in Kansas, Mastodon, Between The Buried And Me, Baroness, Valient Thorr and a ton of fans inside Liberty Hall honored and celebrated the fallen Ronnie James Dio with as much energy and noise as they could produce.

For some reason, I had some apprehensions about seeing Valient Thorr. Dunno if it's the combination of not liking the song of their's on Guitar Hero or being turned off that they have a shtick where they're aliens, but they were really fun and a great way to start off the show. They related what all their songs were about to the passing of Dio and then gave a really positive light on the whole drab situation. To describe Valient Thorr would be to imagine if AC/DC had formed in 2000 or if Motorhead was from Georgia. Equal parts rock and metal, the whole thing was a lot of fun, even if their sound wasn't the greatest.

Baroness got the first real big response of the night, and they blew my expectations away. Undoubtedly the heaviest band of the night, they would sound even better in a bigger place with better sound equipment. I was loving their set a lot. I recognized the songs they played off the Red album and even some from the Blue album, which I am really itching to hear more of now. I can only hope that they'll be back and soon.

Between The Buried And Me (BTBAM) is definitely the odd man out on this tour. Too progressive and too "core" for some in the crowd, but most of the people there loved it. They left a kinda bad taste in my mouth (at least live) after I saw them open for Children of Bodom in 2008, but they were much better this time around. All the members are brilliant musicians, especially the bassist. During Disease, Injury, Madness he had a solo which was just mind-blowing, probably the best bassist I've ever seen live. Would love to see them play a longer set.

Mastodon comes around these parts often, and the crowd tonight let them know just how much we appreciate it. After weeks of hearing about Brent being too drunk to play and storming off mid-set, leaving some shows to get cut short, he was absolutely brilliant tonight. The Mastodon I saw tonight is a band that deserves every ounce of praise they get and is standing on the edge of bigger and better things. The solo's on The Czar, The Last Baron, and an improvised solo before March Of The Fire Ants showed just what Brent can do, and the rest of the band was insane. They gave so much energy and the crowd gave it right back with crazy pits and tons of crowd surfing. One of the best performances I've heard from them.

At the end of the night, Brann came up to the mic from behind the drumkit to thank the crowd, and the last thing he said was "Rest in Peace, Mr. Ronnie James Dio." The crowd went absolutely nuts one last time, and thus ended the greatest celebration of a fallen legend's life that I've ever been witness to.

1. Oblivion2. Divinations3. Quintessence4. The Czar5. Ghost of Karelia6. Crack The Skye7. The Last Baron---8. Crusher Destroyer9. Crystal Skull10. I Am Ahab11. Circle of Cysquatch12. Iron Tusk13. March Of The Fire Ants14. Blood And Thunder

I guess I have a new favorite new thrash band. Havok is what all newer thrash bands should strive to sound like, at least in the live sense. Even though they were missing their lead guitarist and the rhythm guitarist had to learn all the solos that morning, they sounded great and had amazing energy and really got the crowd going. I can only imagine how good they'd sound with a full band. They did a killer cover of Slayer's Postmortem as well. The stuff from the new album was fantastic, too.

Partial/out of order set:

The Root Of All EvilThe Path To NowhereMorbid SymmetryD.O.A. (new song)Postmortem (Slayer cover)Afterburner

But after last night, I'm convinced that Kansas City and the surrounding area has some of the best local metal bands in the country right now. We got a pretty eclectic mix of bands last night and most of them are good friends with one another, so different members from different bands teamed up for lots of covers. It was epic.

First band up was Vanlade, my new favorite local band. They play old-school power/thrash/speed metal in the vein of Accept, Judas Priest, Helloween, etc. Their twin guitar attack is unmatched right now and they really know how to control a crowd. Most of the crowd was singing along, too. I really hope these guys get really huge.

Partial/out of order set:

Blood EagleBlack Sails Cross The Seven SeasLife By The BladeWings Of Fire

Meatshank was the next band. I'd heard about them a lot, but it was my first time seeing them. As a three-piece, they made as much noise as a full band and their guitarist is one of the most talented I've ever seen live. They play a style of death/thrash that was pretty refreshing. They brought on the bassist for Stonehaven (in full corpsepaint no less) to sing their song "Meatshank" and then brought on the guitarist from Vanlade for a couple of covers. It was all fantastic.

Kansas City has an awesome black/viking band. They dress up in animal pelts, chainmail and corpsepaint. And guess what? They're really, really good. If Enslaved never went progressive. If Windir was still alive. If Nocturno Culto would get up and do something. That's what Stonehaven sounds like. Pure Kansas City Black Metal.

Partial/Out of Order set:

Black SailsAdorned In Frost

The last local band was Shred Scare. They sound like early D.R.I./Municipal Waste. Needless to say, there was lots of moshing and lots of screaming along with the band. They brought back the vocalist for Vanlade and, as VanScare, they did a great cover of Breaking The Law. These guys are going out on a huge tour soon, so I hope lots of people get exposed to this party metal band.

Monday, May 10, 2010

It's oddly prophetic. I was looking up Paul McCartney live videos yesterday for no reason, and I remembered the lyrics to "Hey Jude" as I was at The Bottleneck last night. "Take a sad song and make it better." When I found out earlier in the day that Converge would have to skip our date and Colorado because of van troubles, I considered not even going for a while. But it turns out that Coalesce and co. did just what Sir Paul was writing about: they took a potentially depressing situation and made it better than anyone could have ever expected.

With a lowered price (and a $5 refund for everyone who bought advance tickets), pushed-back start time, January weather in May and some really friendly people waiting in line with me, the show finally got started around 8:30. Local hardcore band Canyons started up with no soundcheck and barely an introduction. While each member of the group had a couple of hiccups that sounded like they could be fixed with more practice and a run-of-the-mill hardcore sound, Canyons really got the show off on a good foot. It set the feeling for the rest of the evening.

setlist included:

Bob FarleyWhy We're Not Paid To Think

Touche Amore, who is replacing Lewd Acts for the rest of the tour, was up next and they were by far the most melodic band on the bill, yet they were still great. The crowd was screaming along with every song and sometimes there was only the crowd and the singer screaming without the help of any instruments. Really cool stuff. It was their first time playing and I hope they come back real soon.

setlist included:

Wehatefredphelps.com

If you've listened to Trap Them but want something even better, Black Breath is the place to go. Perfectly combining the grind/hardcore/crust punk that Trap Them does so good and adds just a hint of black metal in the way it's played and you've got a real winner. The Bottleneck was transported back to the 80's by how many gigantic circle pits were happening. Lots and lots of headbanging. A real stand-out on a tour full of stand-outs.

setlist n/a

I'm going to try doing something that will be really tough for me. I'm going to try and put into words just how good Coalesce's performance was. But it's hard. Coalesce is not a band that you can quantify how good a performance is. You can't say, "I can bang my head this hard to Coalesce" or "I can scream along to Coalesce this much" or anything else like that. Coalesce seamlessly combines hardcore, metal, sludge, stoner, mathcore, and noise rock into one of the most challenging, intense, beautiful pieces of musical art I've ever witnessed.

Coalesce does not need gimmicks. In a heavy music scene today where giving 110% during a live show is measured in how hard you windmill or how brutal your music can be, Coalesce wipes the floor with everyone. Every member acted like a man possessed. More than once, Sean Ingram, the vocalist, collapsed to the floor from completely screaming until his body gave out. This is not planned, he does not do this to make people thing "Wow, he must be giving his all up there." It just happens because I can tell that these guys eat, sleep, and breathe what Coalesce is all about. The guitarist, Jes Steineger, literally had his eyes rolling in the back of his head as he slammed his fist against his guitar and convulsed into the crowd. It was as frightening as it was genius, the raucous cacophony came together into one of the most intense and personal performances I've ever seen. As they tore through their entire catalog, including Ox and Ox EP, the crowd never let up. They sang along, they stage dived, and everything the crowd gave to Coalesce, Coalesce gave back even more. One of the most inspiring performances I've ever seen, and one of the best.

There's a reason Coalesce are considered legends of the hardcore/metal scene. For an hour on a cold, rainy night in Lawrence, KS, four normal-looking dudes transported an eager crowd back to a time where metalcore wasn't a dirty word. Pure art.

First thing:We lost Lewd Acts due to some conflicts within the band.Our friends Touche Amore are taking their place for a bit on the tour...

Second:As some of you know, our van's transmission died the other day in Cleveland, OH. With our luck, it died early on a Saturday morning, making an immediate repair impossible.

We ended up ditching our van and gear and renting a minivan to make it to our Detroit and Chicago shows.

Our pal Pettibone from Heiress is sitting tight with the van in Cleveland until it's road worthy. Once it's ready to go, he will be driving to meet us so we can continue the tour. In order for him to catch up with us safely, we have been forced to pull out of the 5/10 (Lawrence, KS) and 5/11 (Denver, CO) shows.

THESE TWO SHOWS WILL CONTINUE with our friends Coalesce headlining with support from Black Breath and Touche Amore. Be sure to attend these shows and support these great bands.

We will rejoin the tour in Seattle on 5/13.We will also look to make up these two dates later this year as well.

Sunday, May 9, 2010

Monday, May 3, 2010

What a perfect day for a concert. It was just starting to get cloudy and sprinkle before the doors opened to let in the crowd, so inside it wasn't very hot at all. Made for a great show with some amazing performances by all the bands.

First up was Lecherous Nocturne from South Carolina. They had great energy, but the sound was hit or miss for them for most of the set. Despite that, they were a technical death metal band in the vein of Portal, who I thought they sounded like at times. The vocalist did a good job at interacting with the crowd and had the ingenious idea to give away a copy of their new album to the person who kept the mosh pit going the longest during one of their songs. I bet they sound awesome on album, but I'd like to see them again and hear them better live.

It was my fifth time seeing Skeletonwitch live and although I wish they would've played for longer and added a few more songs, they absolutely killed me. Cannibal Corpse made a dire mistake taking them on this tour, because I was absolutely drained by the end of their performance. The sound was pretty great, and their playing was spot on. I always wreck my neck to Skeletonwitch and last night was no exception. Sacrifice to the Slaughtergod, Crushed Beyond Dust and, of course, Within My Blood were the perfect trifecta of headbanging of the night. Amazing.

A really awesome thing about this show was that it was exactly on time. None of the bands forced the crowd to wait longer than they had to, which was good because I figured 1349 would do that because Norwegian black metal bands tend to have a complex like that. Nope. They came out and despite a few sound problems during the first half of their set, they destroyed. Only one guitarist on this tour, but it really didn't matter. They just cranked up the bass and when it sounded good, it sounded REALLY good. I couldn't hear Frost's drums too much during the set which is a shame; I know what kind of talent he has. The rest of the band did a great job at invoking some sort of unholy spirit to guide us through a blistering set of pure black metal including one absolutely crushing rendition of Sculptor Of Flesh. The new stuff sounded great as well. They probably won't be back around these parts for a while, so I'm really glad I got to witness this spectacle.

Also my 5th time seeing Cannibal Corpse and all I can say is WOW. They really hit their back catalogue for this one. They started off the set with Scalding Hail from their newest album (and I think that's the first time I've heard that live) but most of the songs that followed were probably older than most of the crowd there in attendance. I Will Kill You, The Cryptic Stench, Scattered Remains, Splattered Brains and Devoured By Vermin were some of the best times I've ever had at a concert and Death Walking Terror, Disfigured, A Skull Full Of Maggots and, of course, Hammer Smashed Face still are absolutely crazy awesome. Lots of great Corpsegrinder moments, lots of crowd surfing, lots of pits, and lots of headbanging. What more can you ask for? Cannibal Corpse is on top of their game and on top of the current death metal world and with sets like these, they're going to stay there for a long time.

Lecherous Nocturne:

partial/out of order:

The Divine WindJust War TheoryEdict Of WormsDeath Hurts Only The LivingThe Preponderance of Fire

Sunday, May 2, 2010

After months of speculation, Ozzfest was announced. Although it certainly was a disappointment that there are so few dates, the lineup is solid for the most part and is loads better than Mayhem Fest this year.

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